


Not A Creature Was Stirring

by HeartOfTheMirror



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Christmas Eve, Christmas Fluff, Domestic Fluff, Fluff, Kid Fic, M/M, Steve and Bucky as parents
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-25
Updated: 2016-12-25
Packaged: 2018-09-12 02:39:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,087
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9051931
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HeartOfTheMirror/pseuds/HeartOfTheMirror
Summary: Except for Eta, Steve and Bucky's two year old daughter.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Un'betaed. Let me know if you find any mistakes and I'll correct them. Enjoy!

The soft glow of the Christmas lights were warm on Bucky’s skin in hues of red and blue and yellow and green. He lseemed bathed in sunlight filtered through stained glass. He looked like an archangel curled up and drooling a little on the ratty arm of their old couch. 

Steve’s fingers burned for his watercolors. He wanted to capture this moment, a firefly in a mason jar, and hold its warm glow to his chest as long as he could.

Hearing the gentle creek of movement over the old floorboards, Steve turned around. Eta was standing there in her fleece bubblegum pink footie pajamas, clutching Mr. Twix, her velveteen rabbit, by one ear so that his feet dragged on the floor as she walked. That way she could pretend he was hopping beside her and not dangling precariously from her fierce little grip. 

“Papa,” she whispered, brushing her cornsilk hair out of her face with one clumsy hand. “Daddy is sleeping.” 

“Yeah,” Steve whispered back, bending down to scoop her up into his arms and cradle her close. “We should be sleeping too; don’t you think?” Her runaway little hairs cling to the moisture on his lips as he spoke. Even though he could have comfortably lifted her with just his little finger he wouldn’t spare a hand to brush them away.

She mumbled something sleepy against his shoulder that might not have even been proper words. He carried her down the hall to her room and lowered her into her little toddler bed so carefully and slowly that she didn’t even stir, already asleep. Out of habit, Steve checked that the bumper-railings on either side of her bed were secure and that the green light of the smoke detector was blinking steadily through the darkness.

With a strength born of frequent practice, he resisted the urge to bend down and kiss her forehead. He didn’t want to risk waking her back up, as much as the gesture would have soothed him and his constant worry for her. 

Still, Steve left the door open a crack when he went. He peered into Nic’s room as he passed it on his way back to the living room and Bucky. He wanted to go in, check the locks on the windows, be certain that both of his children were safe, secure. He didn’t, if only because he knew that that kind of hovering would soon be worse for them than a benign neglect might have been. They were so much like him and Bucky already. He needed to learn to allow them room to grow and make their own trouble. 

In any case, Eta’s older twin was sleeping just as soundly as she was, sprawled out like a starfish across his little mattress. 

It was Christmas Eve, Steve reminded himself. Even Hyrdra wasn’t trying to end the world tonight. He could relax just a little, here in his home with his family. 

The sight of Bucky laying there on the couch arrested Steve for a second time. He would never become immune to the sight of his lover. He wanted to crawl on top of the man, rub his body all along Bucky’s like a cheap stripper begging for a tip. He wanted Bucky to wake up with Steve writhing and mewling on top of him and then he wanted Bucky to ravage him right there on the floor before their Christmas tree and their old fireplace until he couldn’t walk or think anymore. 

For so many reasons, Steve knew that couldn’t happen. There were a couple dozen packages stuffed in his and Bucky’s closet for “Santa” to bring to the kids, for starters. The possibility of one or both of those kids waking up again if he and Bucky made a racket and coming to investigate… well, that didn’t bear thinking about. 

So, Steve did his duty as a good dad and carefully placed each package under the tree. He ate the cookies Nic and Eta had left out, making sure to leave plenty of crumbs as evidence. He even chomped on the carrots they had left for the reindeer and left the ends scattered in the front yard, as though they’d fallen from the roof. 

“Baby?” Bucky asked groggily, sitting up and rubbing his eyes as Steve fiddled with the bow on Nic’s first pair of ice skates. 

“Shh, honey,” Steve said. “I took care of it.”

“You’re a saint,” Bucky murmured, leaning forward on the couch so he could circle Steve’s broad shoulders with his arms and rest his chin on the crown of Steve’s head. “Looks like you thought of everything.”

“Mmm,” Steve agreed, stifling a yawn. 

“Why don’t I take you back to our room and give you a little blessing then?” Bucky suggested, his voice full of gravel and sultry promises. Suddenly Steve wasn’t quite so tired. He snuck a peek at the clock. 

They had at least two hours before the kids could be up. And who needed sleep anyway?

“Yeah,” Steve said, as Bucky nipped at his neck. “Yeah let’s do that.”

Bucky took Steve's hand and lead the way to their little master bedroom. The house was old, possibly even older than they were. It was nice in a way, familiar. Being off the grid was a necessity to Keep Hydra and Shield and even their own friends on the Avengers away from the kids, who were too young to understand the ramifications of experiments and government sanctions. The fact that it meant being with Bucky in a place that actually felt like home to both of them was just a bonus.

Bucky laid Steve down on their freshly made bed and turned out the lights. He stripped Steve slowly, with an intimacy that came with years and years of gentle, loving care. When they were both naked Bucky kissed his way up from Steve's ankle, caressing ever tried and tense part of Steve's body until he was no longer wound like a top. 

They made love as they so rarely had the time to do anymore, slow and lingering and so hot Steve felt he would burn up with it until he was nothing but ash, floating away on the air. 

And when they finished, each of them gasping into the other's mouth with prayers they didn't have the breath to utter, praise and thankfulness and joy, they even got twenty or thirty minutes of Sleep before Nic started jumping on their bed and screaming excitedly about Santa.

**Author's Note:**

> Comments and kudos are better than presents from Santa! :D


End file.
